Thanks for joining me today as we continue our study of the Holy Spirit. The goal of this study is to build a biblical foundation for our partnership with the Spirit of God.
Let's review a little foundational information from last week briefly.
We learned that the word “Sprit” in the Old Testament is the word “ruwach,” which means a WIND, a BREATH, a violent exhalation.
In the New Testament, the Greek word translated as “Spirit” is the word “pneuma” which means a current of air, a BLAST of breath, and a strong BREEZE.
What these two words help us to understand is that the Holy Spirit is like the wind of God. Sometimes he comes as gentle breeze, other times he is a mighty, rushing wind of power. When issues have turned up the heat in our lives he is the comforting breeze that cools us. When we are faced with issues that we don’t know how to handle or decisions and we don’t know what to do, he is our counselor who gives wisdom and direction.
In the Old Testament, we see the power of the Spirit working in countless different ways. The Holy Spirit gave Joseph skills to rule over Egypt (Acts 7:9-10). The Spirit gave Joshua the ability to lead Israel (Deuteronomy 34:9). One time the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and gave him power to lead the Abiezrites into battle (Judges 6:34). In Judges 14:6, as hard as it is to believe, the Spirit of the Lord came on Samson, in power, so that he tore a lion apart with his bare hands. Check out the words of Samuel to Saul, the first king of Israel:
(1 Samuel 10:6) “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power and you will prophesy with them and you will be changed into a different person.”
That is a pretty powerful statement - The Spirit of the Lord (which is the Holy Spirit) will come upon you in power and will change you into a different person. WOW! I remember how I use to be.
There was a time in my life when I had a very short temper and had very little grace with people. I was angry and led by my emotions. Thus, I spent most of my life without accomplishing much - because to accomplish something in this world takes working with people and I had trouble there because of my anger.
BUT then I experienced the power of the Spirit of God and became a different person. In fact, one of the greatest compliments ever given to me was when Shandra, recognized the change in me and opened her heart to me and we fell in love. Another great blessing was when Heather Prough - someone who has been with me for years told me one day, “You don’t get angry anymore. I have noticed that.” I can’t tell you what that meant to me. What was the difference, I received the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.
I am curious, how many of you that are Christians would say, “I know someone who is a Christian that seems to have more Spiritual power than I do?” How many of you would say, “I know someone like that?” Yea, a lot of us do.
Well, the answer could be that.....they have more “power” than you do.
Power is misunderstood in the church. We think of it in terms of authority, dictatorship, ego - all the things that bring us dictators in the world have a way of seeping into the church as well.
But true power is displayed in our ability to serve, to be offended, to be mistreated, to be misunderstood and yet maintain our purpose! That’s what Jesus did. He who had power and the right to rule and to dictate came not to be served but to serve. He could do this because he was completely surrendered to the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, I think there are many people who are more surrendered to the “power” that is available to them by God, through the Holy Spirit than others.
My wife and I bought a house that is very special to me - it was my childhood home. Some may frown at that but I just have a lot of memories tied up in this home. The bedroom that my daughters are now in is the room where I found Jesus to be real and personally freeing. It’s a small home that we decided to fix up and it needed both some updating and remodeling. One thing the home lacked was a fenced in yard. Well, shortly after the birth of our son, Johnathan, we decided that we needed to fence in the yard.
Well, I have never let the lack of knowing how to do something keep me from making a mess of things. So I jumped online and figured out how you are “supposed” to do a fence. I remember borrowing a post hole digger from some friends. I got out there with my gloves on and after marking where I thought the posts needed to go, I started banging the post hole digger into the ground.
Unlike today, the ground was very hard since it was the middle of summer and we were in one of those Oklahoma droughts. I remember banging and banging and digging and digging but I just could not make any headway. So I called the most handy man I knew at the time - my father in law. He had a post hole digger so he came over to assist his poor excuse for a son-in-law in this effort.
Needless to say we worked, and worked and worked until my fingers started to blister and that was after only one whole was dug out to the right depth! I thought man, this is horrible. Shortly after that another very handy friend called. He asked me what was up and I told him - the blisters on my hands are up!
He laughed and told me to go get something called an auger. Well, I loved the name but had no idea what it was. So my father in law and I got up there and rented one for $25.00. If you don’t know what these are, imagine a cork screw on steroids! We cranked this thing up and once we figured out how to use it properly, we had all the holes dug in less time than I spent on the first hole! I felt like Tim the Tool man Taylor! To this day when I look at those posts I am so thankful that I now know about augers! I might still be digging if that thing had not come along!
Christians today, all over the world put on their little work gloves, and they take out their post hole diggers and they say, “We are going to live the Christian life!” And in their own strength, they strive and fight and battle and do not get very far. Why? Because they are trying to live the Christian life in their own strength, when there is a far greater power available.
(Romans 8:11 NLT) “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you.”
YOU CAN BE FILLED WITH THE POWERFUL SPIRIT OF GOD AND YOU CAN HAVE THE ABILITY TO LIVE A SUPERNATURAL LIFE IN A VERY NATURAL WORLD.
(Acts 1:4 NLT) "Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you what he promised. Remember, I have told you about this before."
So here Jesus says the Father has a promise for us. And then said that he told them about it before this statement. What can we find?
(John 16:7 NLT) “...it is actually best for you that I go away, because if I don't, the Counselor won't come. If I do go away, he will come because I will send him to you.”
So now he says the Promise is known as "the Counselor." Does he tell us who this Counselor is?
(John 14:26 NLT) “But when the Father sends the Counselor as my representative—and by the Counselor I mean the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I myself have told you.”
So the Promise of the Father is that He would send us a Counselor and the Counselor is identified by Christ as The Holy Spirit!!!
(Acts 1:5 NLT) "John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
The Greek word translated as “baptized” is the word “baptizo” which means to IMMERSE, overwhelm, overcome.
It’s important to note what Jesus is saying here and what he is not. He is not just saying you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. No....You are going to be “baptizoed”. You are going to filled, overwhelmed, overcome. You are going to be immersed in this power Holy Spirit which is God in Spirit form.
What’s happen to you when you allows the power of the Holy Spirit into your life?
(Acts 1:8) “But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power...”
This word, “power” comes from the Greek word, “dunamis.” We get our word dynamite, from that word. It means a FORCE, miraculous power, literally the EXPLOSIVE power of God.
Now what will you be able to do that you could not do otherwise?
(Acts 1:8) “But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and tell people about me everywhere.”
Jesus says to his disciples, “You are going to be empowered by the Spirit to take my message into all the world.” You may say, “Well, what’s the big deal about that?” You have to remember exactly who Jesus was talking to. He was talking to his disciples, who for the last 3 years, couldn’t get much right. Never one time did Jesus say to his disciples, “Man you guys have such great faith, I can’t even believe I am here with you!” He never said, “You have failed me for the last time. I am through with you!”
Over and over again, he said, “Don’t you guys get it?” You are with me and yet you still have such little faith!”
Peter said, “Jesus, I am with you all the time, I will never leave you!” And then, right before the cross, 3 times, Peter denies Jesus!
At the cross, after Jesus had already said, “I am going to give my life,” only 1 of the 12 showed up, John; the others were hiding, cowering in fear!
Jesus died, rose from the grave and where were his fearless disciples when he returned? Locked in a little room, scared to death of the religious people!
Jesus comes in, says, “I am here!” They don’t believe it, the women had told us, but we still didn’t believe! Thomas, who heard from the other 10 that he was back, and still saw him, said, “I still don’t believe!” Until he touched the scars.
Don’t ever forget that Jesus looked at these very ordinary people - the ones that the religious people said weren’t good enough or worth their time and Jesus said, “You will have power to take this message all over the world.”
And here we are at this moment, declaring the Lordship of Christ!
Why? Because the Holy Spirit came upon very ordinary people and gave them the power to take this message all over the world. That same powerful Spirit is available today to all who believe!
Today, I encourage you to take off your little gloves, put down your little post hole diggers, and stop doing the Christian life in your own limited strength and surrender to the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit.
Continued tomorrow.
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